Khaleesi: Mother of Dragons, AKA, Kialtho Makes “The Doodler”

In my last knitting blog I had mentioned that I had started a Stephen West design – this year’s MKAL – which is called “The Doodler”. I am not usually a fan of Stephen West’s designs… they aren’t for me, but this one… this one had my name all over it! Once I saw the pictures coming out in Instagram I just knew that I had to make this. And once I had checked the project requirements I also knew I had the perfect yarn combination in my stash all ready and waiting to go.

Yarn:

This took about 5 hours to wind, if not more!

I’ve had the yarn in my stash for over a year, and was bought from a market night from Cuddlebums, a UK based Indie dyer, present on both Facebook and Instagram. Her yarn is just beautiful. I bought the yarn as a gradient set, but didn’t really have any plans for it. Then this pattern came along, and it definitely felt like the yarn had been sitting in wait for it! Perfect amount of yarn – almost down to the T – perfect pattern, I really couldn’t have asked for more.

In progress!

So, here’s a picture of the finished object:

Pre blocking:

Pre blocking, isn’t it beautiful!

Blocking in Progress:

I had to block on a duvet as my blocking boards just wouldn’t have been big enough! It’s still drying even though I washed it this morning, so am reluctant to move it! It’s mostly dry though.

It did feel like it took a long time to make this, but in reality it was only something like 3 or 4 weeks, and considering how many stitches there were that’s insane! On the final rows of wedge 4 it was taking a little over half an hour to complete just one row. This wasn’t so bad as it meant that I could quantify the amount of time left in the project, including that time consuming iCord cast off, which just looks beautiful!

This is the second project that I’ve used the iCord edging and cast off in, and it’s a winner. It may take up more time, but I’m definitely going to use it in the future for edging scarves and possibly shawls too. I’ll have to seek out some patterns that use it in the design for tops as well. It’s such a clean cut, crisp edging with a bit of elasticity as well! I highly recommend it!

I am so happy with how this project turned out, and as I was making it I decided that it was going to be called “Khaleesi: Mother of Dragons” as the colours reminded me of the young dragon queen so much! I think she would be honoured to have a shawl like this.

I already know what my next project is going to be – a hood from KnitNow Issue 43 – made in DK yarn so will feel weird using bigger needles for the first time in ages! I have some acrylic King Cole yarn that I wound from the ball into a cake today [well, why not? I do have a yarn winder now after all! I am going to have a brief break to rest my hands a bit, so will probably start tomorrow! [Me and knitting breaks don’t tend to last long at all].